Hubli: A journey that began 67 years ago, finally ended in success on Saturday with Jammu and Kashmir becoming Ranji Trophy champions for the first time.
The match between the Paras Dogra-led side and Karnataka ended in a draw at the KSCA Hubli Cricket Ground and J&K was declared the winner based on its massive first innings lead.
The victory was particularly sweet as the J&K players outbatted eight-time champion Karnataka for nearly two and a half days.
Dogra declared the second innings at 342/4, following which the captains of both sides agreed to a draw. The entire Jammu and Kashmir squad stormed onto the field thereafter to kickstart historic title celebrations, as reported by News18.
J&K continued to pile on the runs on Saturday, with opener Qamran Iqbal scoring a century after being included in the playing XI as a last-minute replacement for the injured Shubham Khajuria.
Karnataka was aware of the outcome after the fourth day of play and did not use their pace spearheads, Prasidh Krishna and Vijaykumar Vyshak, for even a single over on the fifth morning. Karnataka captain Devdutt Padikkal rotated between Shreyas Gopal, Vidyadhar Patil and Shikhar Shetty, and even turned to part-timers K L Rahul and Karun Nair to go through the motions.
The J&K overnight batters showed little urgency, as they calmly negotiated the opening session without any fuss. Iqbal took 28 deliveries to move from 94 to 100, reaching the milestone with a boundary off spinner Gopal. In between, he successfully overturned a caught-behind decision while on 98 after opting for a review.
The team scored 99 runs in 38 overs without losing a wicket in the first session of the day, taking lunch at 285/4 in 95 overs.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and BCCI president Mithun Manhas watched from the stands as Dogra’s men completed the formalities and etched their names in history.
J&K had won the toss and elected to bat. A century from Shubham Pundir and half-centuries from Shail Lotra, Kanhaiya Wadhawan and Dogra powered them to a formidable 584 all out.
Though Karnataka’s batting line-up boasted the likes of Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Devdutt Padikkal and Ravichandran Smaran – the season’s highest run-getter, the team crumbled to the brilliance of right-arm pacer Auqib Nabi and were bowled out for 293 in 93.3 overs.
Nabi returned figures of 5 for 54 – his seventh five-wicket haul of the season – which also helped him surpass Uttarakhand’s Mayank Mishra to finish as the season’s highest wicket-taker.
